Vicki Clarkson on her rebuilt decking and new garden at home in the Kelmscott hills (ABC Perth:Emma Wynne)

It was a hot, windy day on Sunday, February 6, 2011. Vicki Clarkson had been making cupcakes in her home, halfway up a tree-covered hillside in Kelmscott, when her son came home and said a fire-ball was on its way.

"A few minutes later we were packing and the neighbours from the end of the street came and knocked on the door and said you have to get out, our houses are on fire. We just took everything we could and got out," she remembers.

"Six weeks before that we had some information delivered by FESA (now the Department of Fire and Emergency Services) and I'd gone through it all and thought gosh, we're not prepared for a fire, so I got all the neighbours together and we had a fire meeting.

"And I got the kids all organised and we had plans in place with them, and thank God we did.

"They knew what they had to do. One went and got the computer and all the photos, the other one wet down everything. We had to get all the cars out, everything out."

72 houses in the area were destroyed by fire that day.

When Vicki and her family went back to their property, they discovered that fire fighters had saved the house, but everything around it, the garage, barn, garden, swimming pool and veranda had completely burnt away.

"We just couldn't believe the damage and what had gone through and how the house was still standing."

Her son, who had only had his driver's license for a week, lost his beloved Ute, and the other family car was crushed when a fire truck accidentally backed over it a few days later.

Over two years later, everything has been rebuilt, replanted or replaced, and Vicki now has a detailed fire plan for family and gets together with her neighbours.

"Ninety per cent in the street are really good and organised and we had a fire meeting last Sunday.

"We all know who is staying and who is going. We know about pets and who needs to get those. Hopefully people know that this is a safe house, so if a fire was coming up the hill hopefully people would know to come here, because we've got sprinklers.

"If a fire comes down the hill we can get out but if it comes up from below, we're in trouble.

She has also reviewed all the family insurances, making sure they are fully covered and made sure her property is fire ready, but nevertheless, she says the prospect of another bushfire is always a worry.

"You think it's not going to happen and then it does happen, so you know that it can happen again.

"You how long it takes to rebuild and what you have to go through. You have to get three quotes on everything. I think by the end we had 65 different trades through here fixing things.

"My son was going into year 12 at school at the time, and he lost his car.

Be prepared

She also saw many of her neighbours caught out by not having insurance, or not having enough insurance, and says it's frustrating that some people in the area still not taking the threat of bushfire seriously.

"This year we've had a really wet season, there's a lot of growth out there and people haven't put their fire breaks in, or cleaned their gutters or pruned their trees, which is frustrating.

"A lot of them haven't realised that there might be another bushfire and a lot of people keep saying it may not happen again.

"Some of our neighbours haven't done anything and if we're going to have a fairly big fire we're going to be impacted again.

"A lot of people weren't insured last time so we are out of pocket because we've had to pay for their half of fencing and things like that. We're probably about $60,000 out of pocket over different things."

While she was keen to return home, and still loves living in the hills, Vicki says they probably wouldn't rebuild a second time if a fire came through again.

"I still love living here. My husband wants to move but I love it here and it's a great lifestyle and it always has been.

"My daughter is quite scared of the fires, she gets quite upset if she smells smoke and gets traumatised by it.

"We've just got to be prepared that it can happen again at any time. We have to make sure that everything we could possibly do to save our property and our lives is done."